Word starts very slowly - you can do that
If Word starts slower than usual, there can be three different reasons. In our practical tip you can read how you can fix all three problems.
Word starts slowly: Reinstall the printer driver
Windows may use a printer driver on a network print server instead of a local driver. Change your default printer and check if the problem still occurs. If not, do the following:
- Disconnect your printer from your computer.
- Open the Control Panel and click on "Devices and Printers" in the "Hardware and Sound" category.
- Right click on your printer and select "Delete". Confirm the security question with "Yes".
- Now connect the printer to the PC again. The drivers should be installed automatically. Read here how to set up a WLAN printer. If you have any problems with the installation, you can read this practical tip.
Word starts slowly: Reset the Word data key
Word may be installed on the PC, but it was started over a network. If the PC is not connected to the corresponding network, Word can take a long time to open. Before performing the following steps, you should back up your registry - and restore it if something goes wrong.
- Press the key combination [Win] + [R] and enter "regedit" in the Run field. Confirm with [Enter].
- Navigate to the following key on the left: "HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Office \ xx \ Word". "xx" stands for your version of Office. Select the "11.0" folder for Word 2003, the "12.0" folder for Office 2007, "14.0" for Word 2010 and the "15.0" folder for 2013.
- Now right-click on the "Data" subfolder.
- Select "Delete" and confirm the security question with "Yes".
- Close the registry and start Word. The data key is set up again.
Word starts slowly: reset Word
It is also possible that defective add-ins or fonts are responsible for the slow start. In this case, it helps to reset Word completely and to deactivate all add-ins.
- First try to reset Word. If that doesn't help, try the next step.
- Deactivate all add-ins in Word and restart the program (section 3 in the article).
- If the problem persists, you can completely remove and reinstall Word.
- Note: Before you uninstall Word, you should check whether you still have the license key. If not, you can read it out before removing it.